We use cookies to personalize content, interact with our analytics companies, advertising networks and cooperatives, and demographic companies, provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. Our social media, advertising and analytics partners may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. Learn more.
Recently I had a pet of over 15 yrs pass. Thankfully it was sudden and overall painless for the pet. We chose to have her cremated and wish to place her in her favorite spot out in the garden area. Knowing I had already engraved in some Marble and Slate. I thought I would give it another go and see how a nicer Marble and even some Granite would do.
I have laid out the test design in Aspire with a V carve and an Etching toolpath. V carve for the art work and Etching for the lettering. First design is for a close friend who just lost her Great Dane of 12+ years. My first test was in Marble
Not overly happy with the font chosen but that can be changed later. Overall the design milled just fine with a polycrystalline diamond 45 degree .2mm engraving bit. These bits are not cheap by any means but the diamond tip cut through the marble like butter over all. I expected this result from my tests before with a standard carbide 30 degree .2mm engraving bit before in marble and slate.
The design needs a few tweaks and the font needs to be changed. but over all the goal was reached and the stone will engrave with ease. DOC was .1 with a feedrate of about 80mm/m to be safe on the first tests.
Currently the same design is being done in granite.
That looks awesome. I have some old granite pieces I was hoping to use one day. It’ll be wood for a while, but when I get to that granite, I’ll come back to this post. Do you need water involved to cut stone like this?
You should use water for a longer life of your end mill. But I did cut these dry. It worked fine but i am working on a water system now that will not flood the mill room also. I already have orders for more pet memorial so I need to get cracking I guess on the water system.
Most of them take 4-6 hours and the cuts are shallow and the point is about .20 so clearing a larger area takes a fair amount of time. I do drink coasters in about an hour or so I think. The 6x6 pet marker with the cat ran about 7-8 hours I think due to size and how large the design was.
Hi, I have only reason XC for engraving on granite I try many bits not getting good results I need shallow depths for plaques but cant works whenever I try Z axis have lot vibration and lower V wheels getting loose while carving I seen you did carve here any more updates how you are doing still any more development in your works.
I want to know if I upgrade Z axis with linear slider does it get more power while carving any Idea I appreciate.
Thanks
No. Carbide will be destroyed faster than you can blink. You will need a PCD engraving bit. I have ordered mine from China from the usual suspects. You will also need to pump water to your bit, because you really don’t want to breath granite dust and it also helps to extend the life of the bit. So you will need to have something else than the original MDF bed. Also make sure that the granite slab if of even thickness and if not, shim it flat. I usually use something like 0.7-1.0 mm as a total depth and paint engraved areas white. I have some photos of the stones I have engraved on my Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jyrkipa/
